Recuperator



Jan. 31, 192s, 1,657,704

E. W. WESCOTT RECUPERA'TOR Filed Jan. 25. 1925 2 shee-sheet 2A www@ Patented Jan. 31, 192s.l

UNITED STATES lPATENroi?Fica.V

ERNEST W. WESCOTT, OE NIAGARA FALLS, YORK, ASSIGNOR-TO VCOVMSIOCK & WESCOTT, INCORPORATED, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A. CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

RECUPERATOR.

yApplication led January 23, i926. SeraIrNe. 83,307.

This invention relates to vrecuperators; and it comprises a recuperatornhaving the air and hot gas channels o f monolithic con struction, free of joints, air gaps and par--A ticularly 'of other materials than those used in the monolithic construction; such material being ordinarily and advantageously one of slight expansion and contractionk under the influence of temperature changes, and of slightl shrinkage during bonding; and 1t further comprises a method of making s ucli a recuperator wherein molds lare placed in position to form 'the requisite air and hot gas channels and then a bodyv of plastic ceramic material having .but slight shrinkage on drying and tiring is tamped into position; all as more 4fully hereinafter set :torth and as claimed. p t

An important purpose of my invention is to provide a recuperator so leak-proof as to allow of higher diierential pressure between air and flue gas than has hitherto been practicable. In countereurrent operation there is necessarily some difference in pressure be. tween the gases on the two` sides of the heattransferring wall'at each end of the apparatus. The higher pressure differentials al-y lowable in inyjnvention permit higher-air and tlue gas velocities, and these highervelocities yield higher heat transfer coefficients.

'Ihe higher differential pressures also allow the use of flue sections having a more fav'oi able ratio of superficial area to cross section and hence a greater resistance to gas flow, than the simple rectangular or round scc- 'tions now in use.

In the ordinary type oit recuperator used tor supplying hot air for combustion and other purposes, it iscustoinary to build up a structure of tile or brick cemented together by an appropriate refractorygrthe structure having long and circuitous cliannelsfor hot gases and for ainto be heated side by side. UsuallyV the travel of the two is moreor less in countercurrent. In using brick and ceramic materials for this purpose an interchange oflieat can be secured; such materials become better conductors with an increase in temperature, following the electrical rule in this respect. Their ethciency .however is not as great as is desirable and it is the purpose ot the present invention to improve in this respect.

its ordinarily constructed; the seams between thetiles or brick offer considerable resistance to heat tlow particularly it there is any shrinkage, ,giving an open seam.

Even without actualjopenings however conductivity across a joint of this character is never good. The seams however as a matter ot fact always do open to a greater or less extent in use since differential expansion cannot well he avoided. Because of this it is l extremely' di'liicult to run a recuperator atv its rated eliiciency without someintermixtur'e of air and gases; nor can high differentials exist between the two sides ot the separating wall. In fact the use of any high gas prese sure at any point is precluded,

In chemical uses of heatedkair it is particularly-desirable to `obtain air as hot as may be and free from products of combustion or other gases :than air. One typical instance Where heated air is required in such an industry is in burning thechlorin out of ferrie chlorid vapors (see Patent No. I

1,552,786, sept. 8, 1925);

In the present invention I have provided I a type ot recuperator free of the noted disi advantages and presenting certain new advantages. One of the latter is the Possibility o'f shaping the iconduits so as to obtain the best heat transmitting relationship between the solid wall and the air or gas passing tliereover. mine the length of path, cross section of path, and heat conducting surface required In this invention, I first deter-v for a given furnace operation, according to the well known laws of heat transfer and,

resistance togas flow applying in' such cases. I then determine thetotal volume required to enclose the necessary ducts, including; al-

lowance for the wallvthickness, and select a suitable rect-angular shape of the requisite dimensions to obtain the required volume. Having designed and if desired built the rest of the furnace about or adjacent to space for this rectangular block, and having furnished either temporary wood or metal walls surrounding 'the space reserved for the block, or having erected the permanent brick walls to 'form the sides oit the block, I then proceedl to arrange in the bottom of the rectangular space so defined a series ot' forms, forming the first row of ducts. 'Ihese i'ornis may be of wood, preferably hollow,

or or' metal, or of other suit-able material. rI`hey are made removable through apertures provided, being furnished with a draw, or else are o f wood or of'other combustible material so arrangedI that they can be burnedlv out. I then proceed to` tamp a suitable refractory composition below, on, and over the forms. After these have been covered to a depth of approximately one half the ,distance to the next set of forms, I insert the latter,

which are held 1in place 'by connecting members, by pins inserted inthe wall, or are otherwise suitably spacedin position. I then proceed to'. tamp in a refractory composition as before and proceed in this manner until the block is completed. Having completed the block and allowed a suitable. amount of preliminary drying,'which may well'take place as the tamping is carried on, I remove the metal forms, if such areused, from the ducts and open such apertures as have be'en left in the structure. 'I then cause a circulation of warm air through the ducts in the structure by sucking orblowing with a fan or natural draft the hot gases from a wood fire, or 'exit as-froiii a furnace if such be available. fter the structure has received a thorough preliminaryldrying such as is given refractory hollow ware I ignite the wood'en forms, if such have been used, and burn them out with a gentle draft, and then I gradually increase the temperature of the gases which are being drawn through the ducts. I finally increase this temperature to the maximum which is to be used and allow this temperature gto become set up in the whole of the recuperator, by preventing circulation of air or other coo ing agent through the air ducts, so that the entire mass is thoroughly fired just as would be the case if the material were being bu'rnedn a kiln.'

This drying and firing operationf requires very little more time than is ordinarily`alvlowe'd for the first firing up of a reci'ip'erator made from previously fired tile.

The brick work surrounding the recuperator block is buck-stayed as is usual to assist in couiiteracting the effects of expansion and V contraction.

If the recuperator is to be very large it is advisable to sectionalize it either horizontally or vertically. If the split is madehorizontally it is effected merely by leveling off `high, or if for other reasons it is desired to give it vertical separations, a temporary side wall must beuse After forming one section the temporary side wall is moved along and the vertical wall against which fresh material is to be tamped is dusted with inert lmaterial before tamping in a new section.

In sectionalizing the recuperator the seetions sliouldbest be so placed as to clit through only one variety of duct, or preferably no ducts at all. This is desirable but not absolutely essential.

It is not of course-necessary, although usually desirable, that the recuperator sections should be tamped and red on the exact spot. upon which they are to be used.

Pievious'attempts to increase the efficiency of rccuperators by corrugating the Awalls of the ducts have failed, partly because of in- -creased cost, fragility, etc., but chiefly in my opinion because the increased gas pressures required 4to cause fiowpast the corrugations produced prohibitiv leaks through the enormous number of joints present, and partly because the indicated advanta es as to heat transfer were' rendered at east in part illusory by the air gap resistance between adJacent blocks.

lVhere the finished recuperator block made according to the present invention may incidentally show cracks, due to the use of'too much clay or to the grognot being sufficiently dense and inert, these cracks can be each other t Figure? is a fragmentary horizontal section sufficient to show the cross section of the vertical ducts; Vand Figure 3 is a vertical section through a` recu erator having plane walled ducts.

1e recuperator is built upon suitable foundations F1, the gaslflues areindicated at 2 and the air fiues at.3. The forms or molds for the gas and air ducts are of a. shape conformin to the ducts as shown in these flues. I nd that the particular shape of duct shown materially adds in the transferrence of heat between solid and gas in the recuperator. The vertical flues in Fig. 1 are best used for air and the horizontal fluesfor hot flame gases or products of combustion, thelower portion marked 6 of the horizontal fiues, free from serrations roviding space for the accumulation of ust iin i and itsfre'ady removal. Use of wallsof, so to speak, serrated cross section as shown in Fig. l, is advantageous, but walls of the ordinary shape may be employed as shown 1n Fig. 3. In making the corrugated form shown it is advantageous to have upper sur faces in horizontal lines sharply sloping to prevent the accumulationbf flue dust. In the horizontal ducts of Fig. l there are vir tually narrow lateral and top, respectively `marked 4 and 5, auxiliary passages which operate eifectually to provide increased heat transfer surface -upon which dust cannot 4readily settle. In the structure as shown in Fig. 2 it will be noted that the vertical ducts are made more symmetrical but are provided with a plurality of lateral channels of large superficial area. n

By the use 'of chiots of the form shown there'is obtained a considerably higher ratio between the useful area of heat-transferring surface and the cross'section area than can be obtained with ducts of anysimple geometrical cross section.

Vhile various highly refractory materials may beused for the' present purposes, carborundum is quite satisfactory. A mix may be preparedby crushing a good grade of crude carborundum, or silicon carbid, in pan mills until practically none of the material is coarser than about 12-mesh. lVith a good grade material at this time the crushed product will contain 2l to 28 per cent f grain retained on a -mesh screen. The residue is finer. y washed to remove graphite dust and any excessively fine silicon carbide or other extremely fine dirt. Washing at this stage to i remove graphite is quite important since crude carborundum usually contains it.

The material is next mixed with fine ground sagger clay in an amount suiiicient to fill the voids. lVith material prepared as described,

filling the voids Will usually require Iabout 8 per cent by weight of clay. The mixture is then dampened with any suitable .temporary binder such as water and molasses, sultite waste liquor, etc. The binder should beorganic so that it will burn away Without leaving a iluxing residue. Sodium silicate is not applicable." Usually about l part of organic binder with 6 parts of water is suii pletes.

cient for moistening 100 parts of mixed clay and grain. to the 'right consistency. l The sagger clay used should be close-burning and vitrifyv at about v 1350" C. Suitable clay should have a long vitrifying range; that is to say, there should Abe a wide range of temperature between thepoint at which vitrification begins and that at which it comrfhis particularmix of ceramic materials and others of thel same type produced with the aid of electric furnace products, that is The crushed material is of products which have been exposed -to an extremely high temperature, is so nonshrinking that in making the recuperator the molding elements can be made of exactly the dimensions desired in the finished article.

ln other ceramic practice a large shrinkage allowance has to be made but'none such is necessary with these mixes. Nonshrinkage materials are of great importance in heat exchangingapparatus made under the present invention. A monolithic recuperator made with ordinary lire clay greg and clay in addition to shrinking in firing would develop numerous cracks and require much patching beforeuse. While the use of materials havingsome shrinkage is practicable they are not advantageous. rials suited for my purpose will produce a structure in which the grog particles will have substantially the same density wherever taken in the recuperator; that is whether taken from the highly fired portions or from slightly fired portions. The

space relationship of the greg particles, as

ascertained by thin section study of the tired materials made under the ,present invention, will be thesame whether taken from highly fired or slightly tired portions. Thin section views of the material of properly prepared recuperators under the present invention will show the greg particles jammed Mateagainst each other and practically as closely closely .disposed particles adapted to retainl their space relationship where subjected ioA a high temperat-ure.

4.-As a new recuperator, a monolithic recuperator composed of fired 'ceramic mate rial, such material being a granular refractory which has been subjected to a high temperature bonded by a clay having a long vitrifying range.

'5. A monolithic recuperator having corrugated ducts formed with downwardly sloping upper surfaces.

. 6. A monolithic recuperator having 'ducts with corrugated surfaces, upper surfaces in horizontal ducts being sharply sloping.

- In testimony whereof, I have hereunto affixed my signature.

Ennnsr vv.l Wusoorr.

lio 

